Chicago Bears: Truncated offseason could benefit disciplined Bears
With a potentially shortened offseason, the Chicago Bears could be well-positioned to handle it.
Everywhere you look, you are reminded of and feel the impacts of COVID-19, and the Chicago Bears are no different. Each individual player is doing their best to adjust to a “new normal” of being stuck inside, and some are certainly doing better than others. In this regard, they are no different than every other citizen going through the same.
But a secondary consideration is how these individual players will collectively emerge from the pandemic. In other words, when football does resume, how will the Bears be positioned to transition to live-action?
That will almost entirely depend on what the players are doing on their own to prepare and stay in shape. For example, the New Orleans Saints’ head coach, Sean Payton, informed his players that even if the rules change, the team will not be having a team-led offseason program. In other words, the players are on their own to prepare.
The longer the shelter at home orders stay in place, you’d have to think it will favor veteran, disciplined teams. In that scenario, it could certainly benefit a team like the Bears who have a ton of strong, veteran leadership within the locker room.
Head coach Matt Nagy once said he doesn’t want “me” guys but “we” guys, meaning he wants players who put the team first. Well, they certainly have that in guys like Khalil Mack, Akiem Hicks, Eddie Jackson, Danny Trevathan, Nick Foles, Mitch Trubsiky, Allen Robinson, and countless others who will no doubt make sure their teammates are motivated and working their tails off this offseason.
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This team seems to genuinely care for one another, and when you have that type of chemistry on a team, you tend to look out for each other and police yourselves so to speak. Doing so will enable to Bears to emerge from this crisis in a better position than most other teams who may not be as disciplined. For example, could you imagine a Marc Trestman or John Fox led team putting in the work on their own? Yeah, me neither.